Why Focus on Undergraduate Physics? Isn't K-12 in More Need of Attention?

At the undergraduate level, physics has contact with the students who will go on to be tomorrow's leaders in science, education, and other fields. In many ways, undergraduate physics sets the tone for physics education in the K-12 grades. Tomorrow's K-12 teachers are today's college and university students. Furthermore, today about 70% of American high school students go on to some form of undergraduate education. Colleges and universities are no longer just for the elite. Science education in general, and physics, in particular, must play an important role in educating a scientifically and technologically informed citizenry.